Here are some comments and quotations to help us in our discussion of the Weizenbaum reading from "Computer Power and Human Reason."
The Introduction:
"That science is creative, that the creative act in science is equivalent to the creative act in art, that creation springs only from autonomous individuals, is such a simple and, one might think, obvious idea."
The story of the ELIZA program and its impact on Weizenbaum's thinking about man and machines:
"What is it about the computer that has brought the view of man as machine to a new level of plausibility?
What is it about the relationship between man and computer that develops such strong emotional ties that man "yields his own autonomy to the world viewed as machine."
"It is paradoxical that .. man has ceased to believe in his own autonomy, he has begun to rely on autonomous machines."
"One position I mean to argue appears deceptively obvious: it is simply that there are important differences between man and machines as thinkers. I would argue that, however intelligent machines may be made to be, there are some acts of thought that ought to be attempted by humans."
"We can count, but we are rapidly forgetting how to say what is worth counting and why."
Against The Imperialism of Instrucmental Reason:
Scientists who continue to prattle on about "knowledge for its own sake" in order to exploit that slogan for their self-serving ends have detached science and knowledge from any contact with the real world. A central question of knowledge, once won, is its validation; but what we now see in almost all fields, especially in the branches of computer sciecne we have been discussing, is that the validation of scientific knowledge has been reduce to the display of technological wonders."
The scienctist and the technologist can no longer avoid the reponsibilitiy for what he does by appealing to the infinite powers of society to transform itself in response to new realities....
See everyone on Thursday...
Laurie Center
Moses Brown School